Butterflies - group shots Museum of Nature- Ottawa

 Bowls of fruit were popular with many of the butterflies

 If you click on this photo, you will see the whole image.  I counted 15 butterflies (not counting the blurry one). Perhaps there are even more.

I think I only saw one blue and white butterfly.  It looks like a pretty piece of china.

 In this photo, you can see the colour of the blue morpho when its wings are open, and the muted brown design with eyes that shows when the wings are closed.

The swallowtail butterfly on the left and the center one are very similar but not quite the same. Likely one is the female and the other the male.

Butterfly Delight

We went to the Museum of Nature in Ottawa to see the butterfly show. It was wonderful. So many butterflies! And lots of gorgeous Blue Morphos.  They are very active and when they rest they fold their wings and just show their brown outer colouring so I tried to get a short video of them.
Photos of  lots of butterflies coming soon.

Winter Dazzle

 After many dull winter days, we are having a dazzlingly bright day.

Edge of the cliff

 Shadow flower

Flannel pyjamas

Hairlines

I'll do some shoveling after lunch and enjoy the brilliant weather.

Mystery Tracks

 About a week ago, we noticed some unusual tracks near our house. They were bigger than cat prints, and too rounded for dog or fox prints. An online search made me wonder if it was a river otter. Down at the drainage ditch about 1/4 mile away, several well established track paths went from brushy patches down to the water.

This photo is washed out but it shows the tracks going from one side of the ditch, along the ice, and up the other side. None of the tracks extends very far beyond the edge of the ditch so it is definitely not dogs or deer. It is something that is living in the river bank or under the brush.
River otters are happy living near beavers and beavers regularly damn up this waterway.  In fact, I startled a beaver resting on the ice a couple of weeks ago. I have never seen an otter in the wild but they tend to be nocturnal so that's no surprise. According to the internet, the otters are fairly common, just not seen very often.  Welcome to the neighbourhood, Mr. (Mrs.) Otter, if it is you!